Presbyopia

Presbyopia is a natural occurrence where near vision becomes blurred, making it hard to focus while doing things like reading, using a cell phone, or working on the computer. It is not a disease or illness; in fact, it is very common with age.

What Causes Presbyopia?

In young people, the eye’s lens is soft and flexible, readily changing shape to see images from different distances. As you age, the crystalline lens in your eye hardens and loses elasticity. With this loss of flexibility, your eyes are less able to adjust properly to focus near objects.

Symptoms of Presbyopia

People commonly mistake the symptoms of presbyopia for farsightedness. However, the two conditions have different causes: farsightedness is a result of a misshapen cornea, whereas presbyopia is due to the loss of flexibility in the lens.

The telltale symptom of presbyopia is blurred vision while reading, sewing, using a cell phone, or doing anything that requires near vision.

Treatment for Presbyopia

There are many options for people with presbyopia, including contact lenses. Recent technologies allow people who are entering into presbyopia to continue wearing contact lenses, instead of having to switch to bifocals, or reading glasses.

Common treatments for presbyopia include:

Magnifiers

Bifocal eyeglasses

Reading eyeglasses

Contact lenses: Bausch + Lomb Multi-Focal contact lenses let your eyes focus naturally, effortlessly – at all distances. These lenses feature a gradual design that eases the transitions eyes have to make from near to far distance. Talk to your eye care professional to see if PureVision2 Multi-Focal For Presbyopia contact lenses are right for you.

Treating Cataracts and Presbyopia

Crystalens is an artificial lens implant that, unlike a standard IOL, can treat both a person's cataracts and presbyopia—loss of near and intermediate vision. Crystalens not only treats your cataracts (a clouding or hardening of your lens); many patients hardly if ever wear glasses after surgery. It does so by recreating accommodation similar to your eye's natural lens. The unique Crystalens is designed to allow you to enjoy a fuller, more natural range of vision for most activities, including: reading a book, working on the computer, and driving a car.